Saturday, February 19, 2011

Clever Review Title: Texhnolyze

All right, first review!

General Opinion: Before I jump into the synopsis, I enjoyed this series. I would recommend it to someone interested in a mystery/thriller plot punctuated by traditional and scifi action scenes. If you're only looking into this show for the cyberpunk themes, you might be disappointed. The story focuses more on the conflicts between three criminal organizations and how the main characters are affected by this.

Synopsisings: The story follows the former prize-fighter Ichise who has lost an arm and a leg after a dispute that I didn't really follow that closely.* During the next few episodes Ichise has to learn to cope with losing an arm and leg and in the process meets Ran. Ran is important due to the fact that she is the oracle-in-training for the next town over and can thusly see into one possible near-future. Later, Ichise spots one of the men who were responsible for him losing his limbs and tries to exact revenge. It is not successful. Interestingly enough, Onishi, the leader of the leading syndicate, orders the men to stand down and then has Ichise's lost limbs texhnolyzed.** Shenanigans ensue.

Nits to be Picked:

The director of photography really likes to play with the lightswitch. How it affects the show: You will have shots that are so dark that you need to kill all external light sources just to see if there is movement. Conversely, Those scenes will often be followed by one in the desert which will completely bleach your retinas.

Ichise's voice-acter, at least in the sub, is quite lackluster. This is balanced out by the entire show being very sparse in dialog and Ichise even more so.

*A texhnolyzed woman His promoter's girlfriend pokes him in the eye during post-fight-congratulatory sex, he slaps her shit.
**Cybernetically replaced